History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TVShowsPToZ

** In the first few episodes, the walkers are seen running and climbing after survivors while avoiding obstacles. Later episodes show them as much less mobile and more mindless. This is especially so with the show's first scene, which depicts a little girl walker holding a teddy bear, and Morgan's undead wife, who somehow retains enough intelligence to try the doorknob and look into the peephole of his front door. On later episodes, not only are the walkers never seen holding anything, but it's heavily implied they don't retain any traces of the people they once were, and that any suggestion that they do is delusional. Notably, in the spinoff series ''Series/FearTheWalkingDead'''s pilot episode, which explicitly takes place at the onset of the undead outbreak, the first zombie we see becomes a mindless, violent walker ''immediately'' after reanimating.
*** Season 11 would eventually fix this via {{retcon}}, explaining that there's a variant breed of walkers that are more intelligent than the more common type, retaining enough human intellect to do things like climb, open doors, and use basic tools.

** "Vatos", the fourth episode of the first season, has supporting character Jim undergo SanitySlippage due to apparent visions and precognition, pre-emptively digging graves for no reason and telling Lori to protect Carl. ("I remember now, why I dug the holes.") No other episode of the series ever delves into this strange phenomenon, and even though there are instances where DivineIntervention is suggested (via Father Gabriel, whose arc has him lose faith in God and eventually reaffirm it after being saved / witnessing remarkable events), no one ever remarks on Jim's visions again, even in later seasons where he gets namedropped (like Season 5's "The Distance").

** Viewing early seasons of the UK version and then comparing to any seasons of the US version can be jarring given how many of the challenges in the early UK version are literary, or otherwise very acadmically-inclined in nature. You'd ''never'', for example, see anyone in the US version being required to improvise a speech on turtles while imitating the writing style of W. Somerset Maugham.

*** Many of the early UK improvisors had scholarly backgrounds, and were quite adept at using their specialized knowledge in improv games: John Sessions and Creator/StephenFry both had MAs in English literature; Jonathan Pryce trained to be a teacher; Griff Rhys Jones studied history and English; Graeme Garden has a medical degree; Tony Slattery read Modern and Medieval Languages, specialising in French literature and Spanish poetry; Sandi Toksvig read law, archaeology and anthropology; Jimmy Mulville read French and Classics. (Rhys Jones, Fry, Garden, Slattery, Toksvig and Mulville are all Cambridge graduates.)

** Viewing early seasons of the UK version and then comparing to any seasons of the US version can be jarring given how many of the challenges in the early UK version are literary, or otherwise very acadmically-inclined in nature. You'd ''never'', for example, see anyone in the US version being required to improvise a speech on turtles while imitating the writing style of W. Somerset Maugham. Many of the UK improvisors had scholarly backgrounds, and were quite adept at using their specialized knowledge in improv games: John Sessions had an MA in English literature; Jonathan Pryce trained to be a teacher; Griff Rhys Jones studied history and English ; Creator/StephenFry has an MA in English Lit; Graeme Garden has a medical degree; Tony Slattery read Modern and Medieval Languages, specialising in French literature and Spanish poetry; Sandi Toksvig read law, archaeology and anthropology; Jimmy Mulville read French and Classics. (Rhys Jones, Fry, Garden, Slattery, Toksvig and Mulville are all Cambridge graduates.)

** Viewing early seasons of the UK version and then comparing to any seasons of the US version can be jarring given how many of the challenges in the early UK version are literary, or otherwise very acadmically-inclined in nature. You'd ''never'', for example, see anyone in the US version being required to improvise a speech on turtles while imitating the writing style of W. Somerset Maugham. Many of the UK improvisors had scholarly backgrounds, and were quite adept at using their specialized knowledge in improv games: John Sessions had an MA in English literature; Jonathan Pryce trained to be a teacher; Griff Rhys Jones studied history and English ; Creator/StephenFry has an MA in English Lit; Graeme Garden has a medical degree; Tony Slattery read Modern and Medieval Languages, specialising in French literature and Spanish poetry; Sandi Toksvig read law, archaeology and anthropology; Jimmy Mulville read French and Classics. (Rhys Jones, Fry, Garden, Slattery, Toksvig and Mulville are all Cambriage graduates.)

** The first few seasons of the British version have a much different feeling from later ones. This is mostly because barrister Clive Anderson is getting used to his role, and later show staples Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles do not make consistent appearances while John Sessions appears in almost every first and second season episode. The show hits its stride by season four or five.
** The first season of the American version did not have Wayne Brady as one of the permanent cast members alongside Ryan and Colin. It can be jarring watching one of the early episodes and not seeing Wayne at all. The first season also features a darker lighting scheme, which looks a bit odd compared to the later seasons. Also, Drew, like Clive on the UK version, had not yet completely warmed up in his role as the host, and there wasn't as much banter between him and the performers between games.
** Viewing early seasons of the UK version and then comparing to any seasons of the US version can be jarring given how many of the challenges in the early UK version are literary in nature. You'd never, for example, see anyone in the Carey version being required to improvise a speech on turtles while imitating the writing style of W. Somerset Maugham.

** A fan from later days might wonder if they've downloaded the wrong show. The Stig is wearing black, James May is nowhere to be seen, Clarkson seems aware that he's hosting a television show instead of just behaving like a child and some fat guy named Jason interrupts once an episode to give you incredibly boring tips on buying your next car. And that's before you throw in more disconcerting stuff like a slightly different version of Jessica and the audience not cheering through transitions.

** The first series took place entirely aboard Red Dwarf itself. The characters started getting off the ship occasionally in the second series, with the introduction of the shuttlecraft Blue Midget; then series 3 introduced Starbug and started having the characters leave Red Dwarf more often than not.
** The interior of Red Dwarf in the first two series was notoriously grey and dull, being influenced by the look of a submarine. All the sets were redesigned for series 3, now modelled after the ''Nostromo'' in ''Film/{{Alien}}''.
** Everyone's costumes were updated for series 3 as well. Rimmer's uniform went from a beige and grey shirt-and-tie combo to a shiny jacket and trousers. Lister abandoned printed T-shirts and Hawaiian shirts in favour of his iconic customised leather jacket. The Cat's suits got a lot more creative and varied in their designs as well.
** Kryten became a main character in series 3. He had previously only appeared in one episode of series 2, played by a different actor, with a different makeup design for his head, a [[IAmVeryBritish very posh English accent]] and a tuxedo. His personality is different as well, being less intelligent and with his only personality quirk being his obliviousness to the fact his crew have died. This is [[HandWave Hand Waved]] with some UnreadablyFastText at the [[http://www.ladyofthecake.com/reddwarf/html/season_3_opening.html start of Series 3]] that states that he crashed his "space bike" into an asteroid, and they found his remains and rebuilt him but couldn't restore his original personality. Lampshaded in series 8 where Kryten is briefly restored to his factory settings and behaves just like he did in his first appearance.

** ''Series/UltramanGinga'' is the first installment among the "New Generation Ultra Heroes" line and in retrospect, contains its share of oddities. It's made on a shoestring budget (Tsuburaya was recovering from a huge recession at the time) and it ''shows'' with a cast consisting almost entirely of college-age teens, the storyline being a SliceOfLife drama, the abscence of an attack team (the second season, ''Ultraman Ginga S'' would reveal the resident attack team, UPG, to be operating offscreen) and the monsters appearing in the series are all recycled from previous installments. Ultraman Ginga himself and the monsters also runs on YourSizeMayVary a few times, with trees and telephone poles standing to their waists in a few episodes where the penultimate fight takes place in broad daylight (''Ginga S'' later retcons it by revealing Ginga's size as micro to infinity). ''Ginga S'' and the following series, ''Series/UltramanX'', would bring the New Generation installments closer to their predecessors (attack teams, new kaiju introduced every season, etc).

** The early seasons were filmed in Canada, thus most episodes were gray and rainy, giving them a dark and depressing feel. When the show moved to California, episodes got much sunnier and brighter.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': The [[MagicAIsMagicA rules and lore]] of the [[EldritchLocation Upside-Down]] and it's inhabitants wasn't really solidified in the first season, and as a result some aspects of the Hawkins Demogorgan and Upside-Down in general feel out of line with what's later established:
** The Hawkins Demogorgan uses teleportation powers that none of it's kind ever demonstrate again and it's behavior is animalistic and aimless, seemingly only taking people as nests or food, and showing no indication of being controlled or directed by [[BigBadDuumvirate the Mind Flayer and Vecna]] to achieve their goal of conquering the human world as [[{{Mooks}} all the other Demogorgans are]]. The teleportation powers are especially notable, given that a fairly major plot point later on is the Soviet Union capturing a Demogorgan and keeping it trapped for study… something that wouldn't be possible if they all could teleport wherever they want like the first one does.
** Speaking of Vecna and the Mind Flayer, neither is so much as hinted at in season one. Again, the Demogorgan featured there acts seemingly alone and by its own free will, albeit while still being a primitive, feral creature no more intelligent than any other predatory animal. From season two onwards, the Demogorgans and other monsters in the Upside-Down are firmly established as being SlaveMooks controlled and directed by [[ObviousVillainSecretVillain the Mind Flayer and — by extension — Vecna]], who are both ''far'' from mindless and orchestrate increasingly complex schemes to achieve their ends.

* ''Series/{{Rainbow}}'': George is missing from season 1 of this long running British children's programme.

** The lack of IdiosyncraticWipes (they didn't start using the wipes of the cast dancing in front of the trippy backgrounds until the second season) and a different version of "That 70s Song" (sounded like a version taken from a live concert vs. a studio cut; this was also changed from the second season onwards).